https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-pzQuI3FO8

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/heres-a-first-look-at-akais-two-new-standalone-mpcs.html

Yea or Nay and why?

That said, I wonder if it's too little too late.

The sampler/drum machine wars have been very interesting to watch in recent years. Native Instruments and Ableton being brought to the forefront definitely upped the competition, which is ultimately a win for the consumer (as this means that everybody has to bring their A game in order to keep up).

That was sort of an area where Akai fell by the wayside for a minute there. Thing is, it seems like so many people have converted over (or started with) the other two brands...it seems unlikely that they will get anyone to come back. Plus, while the notion of working on a standalone device is very dope, there are few situations in 2017 where I would think it would be an advantage to not have your computer in the mix.

That said, I would love to play with this and see what it's like firsthand.

Not having to worry about moving things to a computer, or hooking up a sequencer to one at all, is pretty convenient. If this thing is a true hybrid it would be a great look.

IMO that makes them much more attractive.

I don't want to be tied to my computer but I do want hardware control products that offer tight integration when I work with software. This gives you strong offerings on both fronts.

One incredibly strong selling point of Yamaha's MOXF line is that you get 16 audio channels within Cubase, treating the MOXF like a VST while offering a fair amount of hardware control.

Even a pure standalone that contains an audio/midi interface and offers, say 8 channels of USB audio at once at a minimum could be a killer app.

They could be wrong...

I have a Touch so once I have that 2.0 update, I will be more than happy with that...though that X looks REAL dope....Live does too, but that Live is just a standalone Touch.

Akai stepped their game up a lot...

Live - $1,100
X - $2,100

Gotta pay to play.

2.0 is free if you own a Touch....HAPPY AS HELL ABOUT THAT!

This is a "best of both worlds" proposition.

Have your cake and eat it too.

Plug up and work with your vst's.
You have 8 audio tracks in standalone and 128 when it's plugged in.

Away from a pc for while, on vacation or what have you?

Render your vst tracks to .wavs, put it on a thumb or sd card and work on other elements while you're away.

Hell it even has a rechargeable battery for standalone mode.

You got the bubble guts? You could, conceivably, work wirellessly on the toilet. It's gross but possible. Lol.

You could spend an afternoon at Golden Corral and bang out beats from your pc session between buffet trips.

Or hammer out beats while you're wife drives on something other than a Boss DR x0x.

Whoever informed you got it backwards: this isn't a standalone touch, this is Touch if it had standalone. Word is the touch screen had better response too.

For me personally, this is exactly what I've been waiting for and
it's finally here.

>This is a "best of both worlds" proposition.
>
>Have your cake and eat it too.
>
>Plug up and work with your vst's.
>You have 8 audio tracks in standalone and 128 when it's
>plugged in.
>
>Away from a pc for while, on vacation or what have you?
>
>Render your vst tracks to .wavs, put it on a thumb or sd card
>and work on other elements while you're away.
>
>Hell it even has a rechargeable battery for standalone mode.
>
>You got the bubble guts? You could, conceivably, work
>wirellessly on the toilet. It's gross but possible. Lol.
>
>You could spend an afternoon at Golden Corral and bang out
>beats from your pc session between buffet trips.
>
>Or hammer out beats while you're wife drives on something
>other than a Boss DR x0x.
>
>Whoever informed you got it backwards: this isn't a standalone
>touch, this is Touch if it had standalone. Word is the touch
>screen had better response too.

yo 😂

so unless these can do something that my current stand alones can't do, i'm good.

Plus i just got ableton/push combo....i think i'm good on gear for a long ass time.

I'm trying to figure this ableton shit out...lol

Pass for me...for now.

I had to cop a whole new audio interface.

That's part of the release. Both will operate on 2.0

I already own a Touch and have no intention of buying X or Live anytime soon...hence....all I want is the 2.0 update...that's all i really care about at this point.

I'm trying to simply replicate the same workflow. It's not obvious how you do that...

But definitely prefer the MPC workflow 1000 times over...

I can make a full beat in my MPC in 15 minutes...

Takes me way longer in Ableton...but I'm a newb with Ableton, so that should get better as I learn more.

That said...Ableton is dope and once I get the samples in, I can build from there.

It's possible to get to the MPC style workflow, but you have to really know Ableton to get there.

Youtube University helps.

I'm uber newb with that shit so I'm still learning ableton, and it has little things it does that MPC's used to not be able to do, BUT 2.0 is gonna change a lot of that.

Gonna be interesting once 2.0 drops on how I feel about even wanting to continue the Ableton learning curve.

Could be using that time making music instead....

We'll see...

Tho....Ableton will undoubtedly up the ante sooner than later.

BMC: https://youtu.be/LIuCk9abpGI

Zaytoven: https://youtu.be/uECZrsefSP8

One thing I've learned over the last 18 years is these companies rarely produce exciting product demos.

It's like they fear boom bap or something.

If they really wanted to blow it out they would have brought in Just Blaze, Pete, and Toomp and given us ten minute discussions on top of a five minute demo.

...and talk how they are using the new features.

You should check out Masada Trent's youtube. He's a beta tester and did a live Q&A that did a great job answering people's questions. There's infinitely more value in that then these cheesy ass beat demos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KcMCdPINc

>You should check out Masada Trent's youtube. He's a beta
>tester and did a live Q&A that did a great job answering
>people's questions. There's infinitely more value in that then
>these cheesy ass beat demos.

audio/midi interfaces.

Which means you could conceivably expand I/O numbers on this.

If that’s actually possible in standalone, goddamn….

Can u break that down for the less technically inclined? lol.

It means that the product can be plugged in and ready to use without any additional drivers.

So instead of having to use your computer to add additional audio in/out, you can just plug it up to your MPC it becomes another major feature of standalone.

Class compliance also applies to controllers.

So if the report is correct, you could add a controller like the Nektar P1/4/6

http://www.nektartech.com/panorama-p1.html )

which is one of the deepest midi DAW controllers on the market could be plugged up to give you deeper control with multiple faders, knobs and buttons.

then you could plug in audio interface to add a few more I/O.

You'd basically have a very similar setup to a PC daw in a standalone unit, albeit with a limit of 8 audio tracks and and no offline VST's.

It's a pretty dope feature. I know my Kronos can add controllers such as an MPD 32 via USB.

There may be limitations based on power consumption or older controllers that lack USB 3.0 capabilities with their firmware or whatever. To be able to do that with an audio interface is an extra level.

>It means that the product can be plugged in and ready to use
>without any additional drivers.
>
>So instead of having to use your computer to add additional
>audio in/out, you can just plug it up to your MPC it becomes
>another major feature of standalone.
>
>Class compliance also applies to controllers.
>
>So if the report is correct, you could add a controller like
>the Nektar P1/4/6
>
>http://www.nektartech.com/panorama-p1.html )
>
>which is one of the deepest midi DAW controllers on the market
>could be plugged up to give you deeper control with multiple
>faders, knobs and buttons.
>
>then you could plug in audio interface to add a few more I/O.
>
>
>You'd basically have a very similar setup to a PC daw in a
>standalone unit, albeit with a limit of 8 audio tracks and and
>no offline VST's.
>
>It's a pretty dope feature. I know my Kronos can add
>controllers such as an MPD 32 via USB.
>
>There may be limitations based on power consumption or older
>controllers that lack USB 3.0 capabilities with their firmware
>or whatever. To be able to do that with an audio interface is
>an extra level.

with that comment.

I mean is it really worth buying a new MPC at this point? I understand the notion that nothing sounds like an MPC 60/3000, but what's the justification for dropping 2 grand on something that software can do at a fraction of the price when it probably doesn't provide any of the color that legacy hardware did?

is the main plus

if it don't sound like the legacy machines your point is right on though

as has been stated

I've never used Push but the fanbase for that is perhaps the most passionate and rabid group of consumer evangelist in the production game since the MPC 2KXL.

So if that's what you rock and you're 100% happy with it I don't see an argument for you to switch up outside of standalone functionality.

One thing I'll say about the Live and X is that it's brought out a lot of old school MPC heads who haven't been all that excited for the hardware software controllers and those of us who did adopt that newer tech are perhaps even more excited.

This is new territory. This is something that's gone above and beyond to please many masters in a way we haven't seen since the MC 8800.

In my quest to fully convert to something new (my MPC 1000 is dying and I don't really care to resurrect it) and my inability to work productive out of the SP404 as a standalone workstation, I was thinking "man I should really look at Ableton Live with this Korg controller I have". But... I just can't really get into it. I was so desperate to find out how to make it work like my MPC did as far as getting a sample/chop/program workflow going but it seems like that software is built for something different. This MPC X seems like it can really be an all-in-one workstation and I can probably still keep my 404 as a live performance tool.

I dunno, I think my original post underestimated the importance of a workflow for the type of music that I want to make, and Ableton does seem to accommodate that at all as of yet.

Anybody else been able to replicate a good, MPC-like workflow from software w/ a controller? I still sample from vinyl, btw, so recording into the computer will probably require an additional component along with this controller.

>Anybody else been able to replicate a good, MPC-like workflow
>from software w/ a controller? I still sample from vinyl, btw,
>so recording into the computer will probably require an
>additional component along with this controller.

...i use ableton live and a push and a midi keyboard with an audio interface
To sample from vinyl you'd definitely need an audio interface...
There are customised drum rack presets for Ableton floating around the internet that can make it more MPC like...Ski Beatz had a link to one he built on his youtube channel years ago....I downloaded it then. I think he deaded the link at some point....
I can't judge how MPC like it is because I've never used an MPC but it's pretty cool...
I now use a modified version of it to do my chopping..

That's the beauty of programs like Ableton though...it's totally customisable...the learning curve is a bit steep but once you get the basics...it opens so many doors..I don't know any two people who use it the same.

Getting a little off topic but, any opinions on this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fel_p2LnH68

Yeah I know, but $200 more for the Live tho. I'm really thinking about this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhSmq4WDMU

that's going to be a big question that I haven't seen asked yet.

Not as big a factor for me as it would have been maybe 5 or 10 years
ago, but I'm sure there's some out there that have that concern.

because the tech is to the point that it can be done easily, and it also widens the customer base. If you want people still uaing 3ks and 60s to buy your new stuff, at least give them access to stuff they already have in use.

Yeah it's got a ton of features that I would love to get a hold of but know it's not going to happen with the old machines but I don't have money like that anymore to but throwing $3000 on the counter all willy nilly.

Not chump change, but 1199 is a far cry from 3k.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Akai-Professional/MPC-Live.gc

I was on Maschine+Logic for a while but I switched Logic for Ableton just to learn something new and Maschine+Ableton felt a lil redundant to me (plus my Maschine has some dead pads)

I run 2 outputs into my SP404 and then the output of the 404 goes back into Ableton, so it's effectively as an outboard fx/pedal box as well as a straight up sampler. I'm really liking it.

Plus the 404 runs on batteries so it's been fun banging out beats/sketches when I'm traveling light

Its really hard to go back...

I never had the 2000xl so my jump was from MPC 60II -> Reason -> Ableton

and I just cant look back (still want a 60II though for "sound")

There are endless ideas and opportunities within Ableton (and a controller) that it just makes no sense to really deal with anything else...

Standalone as an idea is cool but i've only had 2 real huge issues with a computer in a live setting and they were because of (an unplugged external HD) or an unplugged usb cable..

The Push has made it so you can treat the device as a standalone unit and rarely look onscreen ..

So ionno..

Also hate these m-audio (same company) looking MPC's

What I am truly interested in though is the Kontrol series by NI. Being able to access and load plug ins on the keyboard is definitely a benefit.

Ableton + Push 2 = Awwww, MAN!

That said....Akai MPC still is the business, so anyone that gets the new Live, or X or Touch, etc...you can make some high quality bangers.

Can't go wrong either way (Ableton or Akai).

I went with the Advance, for the included software, but I still wonder.

There's definitely a growing cache of VST's with the NKS format, but unless you're using those VST's as your primary source you'll find Kontrol to be somewhat disappointing. By and large a Nektar Panorama is a much better buy than KK IMO.

How do you like the Advance so far?

It seemed more customizable than it is. I kinda like to start with the weird shit I've downloaded for Massive, but it doesn't like my 3rd party presets. I need more time to play and mix & match synths and VST's to see what works.

It's a hybrid (standalone or controller mode) with the same
capabilities as today's standards and it's own computer program.

I get that they really wanted to market directly to those who have been begging for a standalone unit but there seems to be a fairly widespread impression that it's standalone only and not the true hybrid it actually is.

I can't tell if it's because people stop reading or listening at "standalone" or if the marketing simply neglects the hybrid aspect of things a little too much.

>I get that they really wanted to market directly to those who
>have been begging for a standalone unit but there seems to be
>a fairly widespread impression that it's standalone only and
>not the true hybrid it actually is.
>
>I can't tell if it's because people stop reading or listening
>at "standalone" or if the marketing simply neglects the hybrid
>aspect of things a little too much.

It is in the simple fact that you cant do what you can do in Ableton...

Ableton's ability for sound manipulation is unmatched amongst DAWs..

Even Pro Tools is a half a step back imo

I'm not that familiar with Ableton, can you give me an example of it's
sound manipulation capabilities?

>It is in the simple fact that you cant do what you can do in
>Ableton...
>
>Ableton's ability for sound manipulation is unmatched amongst
>DAWs..
>
>Even Pro Tools is a half a step back imo
>

Got the 2 year warranty.

Put a hard drive in it. will load it with my sounds asap. Fucked around with 2.0 Beta for a bit. Not bad. Only gripe about it is that it wont let you export exploded tracks in song mode..only sequences.

I have a touch, so I pretty much have the Live, just not the standalone part. Haha.

Curious to know how you like it.

One of the things that attracted me to the Live (and 2.0) is the workflow. I don't use a heavy amount of VST instruments. For instance, I have a few outside small hardware pieces to that I play live over drums and samples....MicroKORG XL, Boss Dr-303. With the Live, I don't have to worry about a computer in the way. The Looper and Live Tracks features are dope for my style of production workflow.

And I use Acid as my mixdown DAW for the beat tracks and vocals. The way I can just explode tracks to a USB drive, then throw it on my computer when I'm ready is HUGE for me.

instead of having to manually track into your DAW....

Makes all the difference in the world!!

One of the many benefits of upgrading.

And your live is standalone too!?!?!

Man!!

>Only gripe about it is that it won't let you export exploded tracks in song mode..only sequences.

You most certainly can...

When you create your "song" in song mode, and then decide to export/explode tracks...

First, once your sequences in song mode are arranged and set, save song mode and hit "convert>seq", "include muted tracks" and then choose "do it".

Then go to the sequence your song is now on (scroll your sequences till you see it, should be the newest sequence), and then hit export.

You can then export the tracks in song mode that way.

If you try to export on any of the other sequences that are not the song, it will only export that sequence and not the others.

Hopefully, that makes sense...

Thanks for the info typed out!

I'm strongly considering the X over the Live.

It's a steep price but the workflow with so many dedicated buttons vs the menu diving of Live seems like a worthwhile addition, plus the preamps and two additional inputs since I'll be using an external keyboard with it.

But I don't know. None of the shops out here have either for demo.

I've got a good two months before I have to decide so I'm hoping I can get someone hands on time before then.